Friday, December 15, 2006

Tony Hickey who wrote an early review of Epic has reviewed Saga in Village (30 November 2006 edition). Unfortunately Village has made some of their content available only to subscribers so the review is only partially available online, which is a pity as it is a good summary:

Conor Kostick's first novel, Epic, set all kinds of records in terms of monies and awards - $50,000 from Penguin USA for the American rights; a trip to China to accept the International Board on Books for Young People 2006 award and translations into all the major languages. Saga, his second book, confirms the style and narrative skill of the debut novel, and will surely receive the same critical and financial success. The story is set in the future where The Black Queen, who is a RAL (Reprogrammed Autonomous Lifeform), has, by a murderous coup worthy of The Sopranos, gained control of New Earth. Her horizons are soon clouded by the mysterious Cindella and Ghost, a 15-year-old skateboarding punk girl, who has no identity record and lives on her wits as part of a shop-lifting, graffiti-carving teenage gang.It is a rock 'n' roll, helter-skelter time, a journey not for the faint-hearted but bound to enthral wired-up skateboarders, the mathematically literatre and those who just enjoy a well-written narrative. This is what happens when Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey meets A Clockwork Orange. Thugs have developed a political conscience and the main protagonists are female. Let's hear it for the girls!